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QUAKER HILL 

(1X>CAL HISTOBYj 

S E R I E S 



XIV. Zbc putcbase 
Meeting 



BY 



JAMES WOOD 



THE PURCHASE 
MEETING. 



BY 



JAMES WOOD. 



READ AT THE SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
QUAKER HILL CONFERENCE, SEPTEMBER 
THE SEVENTEENTH, NINETEEN HUND- 
RED AND FOUR. 



PCBLISHED BT THE QUXJEER HiLL CONFBRBNOB ABBOOIATION 

Q0AKKR Hill, New York 
1905 



Publlcmionj "^ 

Of the Quaker Hiix Confeeence Association 

A Critical study of the BibU, by Rev. Newton M. 
Hall of Springfield, Mass. 

The Relation of the Church at Home to the 
Church Abroad, by Rev. George William Knox, D. D., of 
New York. 

A Teuable Theory of Biblical Inspiration, by 

Prof. Irving Franci* Wood of Northampton, Mass. 

The Book Farmer, by Edward H. Jenkins, Ph. D., of 
New Haven, Conn. 

LOCAL HISTORY SERIES 
David Irish-A Memoir, by his daughter, Mrs. Phoebe 

T. Wanzer of Quaker Hill, N. Y. 
Quaker Hill in the Eighteenth Century, by Rev. 

Warren H. Wilson of Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Quaker Hill in the Nineteenth Century, by Rev. 

Warren H. Wilson of Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hiram B. Jones and His School, by Rev. Edward L. 
Chichester of Quaker Hill, N, Y. 

Richard Osborn— A Reminiscence, by Margaret B. 
Monahan of Quaker Hill, N, Yl.'. 

Albert J. Akin— A Tribute, by Rev. Warren H. WUson 
of Brooklyn. N. Y, 

Ancient Homes and Early Day.t at Quaker Hill, 

by Amanda Akin Stearns of Quaker Hill, N. Y, 

Thomas Taber and Edward Shove— A Rominiscenca 
—by Rev. Benjamin Shove of New York. 

Some Glimpses of the Past, by AUcia Hopkins 
Taber of Pawling, N. Y. 

The Purchase Meeting, by James Wood of Mt. 
Kisco, N. Y. 

Any one of these publications may be liad by addressing 
the Secretary, Rbv. Edward L. CniCHKsxER. 

Quaker Hill, N. Y 
Frlos len Cent*. Twelve Cents Postpaid 



Gift 
Publisher 



THE PURCHASE MEETING. 



-o- 



From 1 73 1, when the first Friends came 
to Quaker Hill, until the year 1800 when 
the meeting here, known as The Oblong, 
became a part of the Nine Partners Quar- 
terly Meeting its members belonged to and 
were a portion of the Purchase Quarterly 
Meeting and hence the history of the latter 
meeting for the period named has a close 
connection with the religious history of 
Quaker Hill. Indeed, the history of The 
Oblong is a part of the history of The 
Purchase Meeting. Rev. Warren H. Wil- 
son in his valuable historical papers entitled 
"Quaker Hill in the Eighteenth Century,'' 
and " Quaker Hill in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury," has given a very complete history 
of the meeting of Friends here during those 
centuries; and 1 am now asked to furnish 
that portion of the history which is includ- 
ed in that of The Purchase Meeting. 

It may be well to state at the beginning 
the order of rank of the various meetings 
3 



in the Quaker organization. The highest 
authority is vested in the Yearly Meeting. 
It includes all the meetings and their mem- 
bers in an extended district, as for exam- 
ple, the State of New York. It is the only 
legislative body in the organization. It 
enacts regulations of discipline and super- 
vises and directs the religious life and 
effort of all its membership. The execu- 
tive authority is vested in the Monthly 
Meeting. By it the enactments of, the 
Yearly Meeting are put into operation and 
carried out. The Monthly Meeting re- 
ceives members and disowns offenders, it 
acknowledges ministers, appoints elders 
to co-operate with and aid the ministry, 
appoints overseers to watch over the 
moral conduct of its membership, levies 
the monies to be raised, holds the titles of 
real estate and is the practical working 
body of the organization. Between the 
Yearly and Monthly Meetings is the 
Quarterly Meeting,which has neither legis- 
lative nor executive authority. It includes 
the monthly meetings in its territory, as 
for example, Dutchess County. The 
Quarterly Meeting supervises the religious 
and philanthropic enterprises of its constit- 
uent meetings, gives advice in all matters 

4 



pertaining to the spiritual welfare of the 
meetings and receives from the monthly 
meetings the record of business to be for- 
warded to the Yearly Meeting. It hears 
cases of appeal from the monthly meetings, 
but such cases may be carried to the 
Yearly Meeting for final decision. An in- 
dividual congregation forms a Preparative 
Meeting, called preparative because it pre- 
pares the business that is to go to the 
monthly meeting, to which it reports all 
matters requiring executive action. 
Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings 
are so named because of the periods when 
they are held. 

The Oblong Meeting had its own Pre- 
parative Meeting. That meeting with 
New Milford Preparative Meeting formed 
the Oblong Monthly Meeting. The Oblong 
and Purchase Monthly Meetings con- 
stituted the Purchase Quarterly Meet- 
ing, while that and the other Quarterly 
Meetings formed New York Yearly Meet- 
ing. 

The first Friends who came from Eng- 
land to America, came to Massachusetts. 
Their reception there was not over cordial, 
but they continued to come. Whittier in 

5 



" The King's Missive," says of Governor 
Endicott: 

"His brow was clouded, his eye was stem, 

With a look of mingled sorrow and wrath: 
' Woe's me! ' he murmured, ' at every turn 

The pestilent Quakers are in my path! 
Some we have scourged, and banished some, 

Some hanged, some doomed, and still they 
come. 
Fast as the tide of j^on bay sets in. 

Sowing their heresy's seed of sin.' " 

Finding the climate of Massachusetts 
harsh and uncongenial the Quakers sought 
a more comfortable abiding place and nat- 
urally turned to the Dutch. The Puritans 
themselves had gone from England to Hol- 
land in search of liberty and peace and fol- 
lowing their example the Quakers sought 
liberty and peace in the New Netherlands. 

Many beside Friends came to Long 
Island from Massachusetts to escape relig- 
ious restraint. The first who afterwards 
became connected with Friends was Lady 
Deborah Moody. She settled in Lynn, 
Mass., in 1640 and received a grant of 400 
acres of land. Gov. Winthrop thus speaks of 
her in his Journal: " In 1643 Lady Moody 
was in the Colony of Massachusetts, a wise 
and anciently religious woman; and being 
taken with the error of denying baptism to 

6 



infants was dealt withal by many of the 
elders and mothers, and admonished by 
the Church of Salem, whereof she was a 
member; but persisting still, and to avoid 
further trouble, etc., she removed to the 
Dutch against the advice of her friends." 
On December 19, 1645, Gov. Kieft of New 
Amsterdam issued a general patent for the 
town of Gravesend, Long Island, to Lady 
Deborah Moody, Sir Henry Moody, her 
son, George Baxter, and James Hubbard, 
their heirs and successors, "to have and 
enjoy free liberty of conscience, according 
to the customs and manners of Holland, 
without molestation." Friends came to 
Gravesend in considerable numbers in 1656 
and 1657. The historian of Long Island 
states that " many of the inhabitants read- 
ily embraced their doctrines and discipline 
and the first regular meeting on the Island 
was organized and maintained here." 
' 'Meetings were held at the house of Lady 
Moody, who managed all things with such 
prudence and observance of time and place 
as to give no offense to any person of any 
other religion, so she and her people re- 
mained free from all molestation." 

Flushing was also settled by people 
7 



from Massachusetts. Gov. Kieft granted 
them a charter October lo, 164s. Friends 
very early joined the settlement, promi- 
nent among whom was Richard Smith. 
Robert Hodgson and Robert Fowler were 
the first ministers there, of whom we can 
fmd any records, in i6s7 they held meet- 
mgs in Hempstead, Jamaica, Flushing and 
Gravesend. Increasing numbers continued 
to arrive and meetings were established at 
Oyster Bay, following those at Gravdsend 
and Flushing, and later at many other 
places. In 1672 George Fox, the founder 
of the Society in England, visited America, 
and spent some time on Long Island, draw- 
ing great crowds to hear his ministry. The 
large meeting house, still standing at 
Flushing, was built in i6q6. 

As Friends became numerous at Flushing 
they easily crossed the East River to Throgs 
Neck and became established in the town 
of Westchester, then called by the Dutch 
Vredeland, or Land of Peace, "a meet 
appellation," says the historian of the New 
Netherlands, " for the spot selected as a 
place of refuge for those who were bruised 
and broken by religious persecution." 
Soon afterwards other Friends settled in 
Mamaroneck. We do not know when 

8 



meetings were first established tiiere, but 
we find tiiem regularly organized in 1685. 

In the year 1695 a step was taken that 
proved of great moment in the settlement 
of Friends on the mainland. John Harri- 
son and others of Flushing purchased of 
the Indians a tract of land of about eight 
thousand acres, which is now the town- 
ship of Harrison in Westchester County. 
Harrison soon after received a patent for 
the tract from the British Government. It 
was known as Harrison's Purchase and af- 
terward as " The Purchase." The name 
was given to the meeting established there 
and continues to the present time. 

The Yearly Meeting for New England 
held on Rhode Island, the oldest in Amer- 
ica, set off a Yearly Meeting to be held at 
Flushing, L. I., in 1695. In 1725 the 
Yearly Meeting at Flushing established a 
monthly meeting for the mainland which 
was held at Westchester. On the 13th of 
third month, 1742, the monthly meeting 
was held for the first time "at The Pur- 
chase in the Rye Woods," as the minutes 
state. 

Harrison's Purchase was made for settle- 
ment by Friends. Soon the lands 
were all occupied. Then began a 



remarkable line of settlements to the 
north in the narrow strip of land, left 
comparatively unoccupied between the 
English of Connecticut on the east and the 
Dutch on the west. The first settlement of 
any considerable numbers was upon Quaker 
Hill in the Oblong. These settlers came in 
1 73 1. They had been preceded two or 
three years by a few settlers from Connect- 
icut. Their church membership was at the 
Purchase, and hence the meeting established 
here belonged to Purchase monthly hieet- 
ing. It is thus The Purchase Meeting is a 
part of the history of Quaker Hill. A 
meeting house was built here in 1741 or 42. 
An earlier meeting had been set up by 
Purchase monthly meeting at New Milford 
in 1 73 1. In 1744 the Oblong became a 
monthly meeting with all the authority of 
such a body. All the monthly meetings on 
the mainland as yet belonged to the quar- 
terly meeting on Long Island. Among 
the first acts of the Oblong monthly meet- 
ing was to institute proceedings for the 
establishment of a quarterly meeting on the 
mainland. We find upon the records of 
the Purchase monthly meeting held 8th of 
9th month, 1744, the following; "a proposi- 
tion was read at this time from the 

10 



monthly meeting at the Oblong recom- 
mending to our consideration the applying 
to the quarterly meeting for to have a 
quarterly meeting on this side which this 
meeting doth approve of." The proposi- 
tion was forwarded to the yearly meeting 
and the request was granted. A quarterly 
meeting was therefore established at the 
Purchase and its first session opened with 
this minute:— "On the 3d of 6th month, 
'174s, was held a quarterly meeting at the 
meeting house at the Purchase agreeable to 
and by the appointment of the yearly meet- 
ing held at Flushing in the third month 
last, and the meeting appointed John Bur- 
ling clerk of the same." In 1749 it was 
decided to hold the quarterly meeting part 
of the time at the Oblong. Oblong and the 
Purchase were thus united until the year 
1800, when upon the establishment of a 
Stanford quarterly meeting a readjustment 
of monthly meetings was made by the 
yearly meeting and the Oblong was united 
with Nine Partners quarterly meeting, 
where it has since remained. The north 
line of meetings established as the settle- 
ments of Friends required was in the follow- 
ing geographical order, viz. ; Westchester, 
Mamaroneck, The Purchase, North Castle, 
11 



Chappnqua, Croton Valley, Amawalk, 
Salem, Peach Pond, the Valley, the Oblong, 
New Milford, the Branch, Nine Partners, 
the Creek, Stanford, North East, and so on 
to Ghent, Chatham and the north. 

That Friends, when established in the 
Purchase, became very active in spreading 
their views, is shown by the following ex- 
tract from the report of Rev. John Wet- 
more to the society in London for propo- 
gating the gospel. He was the rector of 
Rye and wrote in 1750: "Where an^ of 
them settle they spare no pains to infect 
their neighborhood. Where they meet 
with any encouragement they hold meet- 
ings day after day. Celebrated preachers 
are procured from a distance and a 
great fame is spread before them to 
invite many curiosities. Our people of 
credit often go their meetings, especially 
their great and general meetings." He 
thought they were pernicious and ought 
to be suppressed. He wrote and printed 
two letters and three dialogues in refuta- 
tion of the Quaker doctrines which he 
hoped might be of great service to "stop 
the growth of Quakerism in these parts." 
But great accessions to membership con- 
tinued so that with those who had come 
12 



from Long Island and those who joined 
with them, the central line through West- 
chester, and up into Dutchess County was 
distinctly Quaker territory. This was so 
marked that on great occasions, such as 
the holdmg of a quarterly meeting, the 
population turned out en masse. Piety 
and worldliness both observed the day. 
The latter class gathered about the meeting 
house, had wrestling matches and various 
athletic sports in the neighboring fields and 
horse races on the adjacent roads. The 
meetings regularly appointed committees 
as a police force to keep order about the 
meeting house during the time of worship 
and business. 

Friends everywhere took an early stand 
against slavery. Their position concerning 
it was one of gradual development. At 
first Friends upon Long Island and through- 
out Purchase quarterly meeting held slaves 
without objection, the meeting sometimes 
assisting members in their purchase. On 
the 14th of eighth month, 1684, this 
record was made: "At our half-year 
meeting at Matinecock, the necessity of 
John Adams being laid before the meeting 
for their consideration and assistance for 
some speedy supply for part of the pay- 
13 



merit for a negro man that he hath lately 
bought, the meeting appoints and desires 
John Bowne to take care in behalf of the 
meeting to procure a sum of money on as 
cheap terms as he can for the supply as 
aforesaid and the meeting engages to reim- 
burse him." Some Friends were even en- 
gaged in the slave trade. But a conviction 
of the wrongfulness of human slavery 
gradually developed, until it was decided 
that members should neither buy nor sell 
slaves, but might retain those they had in 
possession. The monthly meeting at 
Flushing 26th of first month, 1774, recorded 
" John Whitrow sold a negro man and 
the meeting thinks he should return the 
money to the purchaser. As he refuses he 
is disowned." In the same meeting, tenth 
month, 10th, 1775, recorded: "Charles 
Doughty sold a negro and justifies himself 
therein. He is disowned." On 2d of 
fifth month, 1776, the monthly meeting at 
Flushing recorded "the committee on 
negroes report that many Friends have 
them but seem disposed to free them. 
Some have manumitted them and instruct 
their children in necessary learning. Some 
justify their bondage. The committee is 
to labor with Friends who keep these poor 
14 



people in bondage, in the ability that truth 
may afford for their release and, if insensi- 
ble, then Friends can have no unity with 
them so far as to accept their services in 
the church or receive their collections. 
No Friend shall hire any negro held in 
bondage, neither hire any negro or other 
slave that is not set free when of age, nor 
do any act acknowledging the rights of 
slavery." When Friends freed their slaves 
they continued to care for their education 
and religious welfare. 

In 1767 the records of the Purchase quar- 
terly show that a step was taken that was 
markedly in advance of any before taken 
in any church or legislative body concern- 
ing the intrinsic wrong of human slavery. 
At the quarterly meeting held 2d of fifth 
month, 1767, the following proposition was 
forwarded to the yearly meeting: "If it is 
not consistent with Christianity to buy and 
sell our fellow men for slaves during their 
lives and their posterity after them, then 
whether it is consistent with a christian 
spirit to keep in slavery those that we 
have already in possession by purchase, 
gift, or any other ways." Rev. Mr. Wilson 
has shown that Purchase quarterly meeting 
at that session was held at the Oblong. 
15 



Thus this pioneer movement was organized 
here upon Quaker Hill. The subject came 
up at the yearly meeting held at Flushing 
on the 30th of the same month and was 
considered with some hesitation. The 
following year satisfactory action was 
taken and in succeeding years more firm 
positions were taken. In 177s this declar- 
ation was made: " It is our solid judgment 
that all in profession with us who hold 
negroes ought to restore them their natural 
right as to liberty as soon as they arrive at a 
suitable age for freedom." Three years 
later the following minute was recorded: 
" The matter respecting those Friends that 
continue to hold slaves being now taken 
under consideration it is the judgment of 
the meeting that such Friends as still refuse 
to free them, ought to be dealt with as 
disorderly members." Monthly meetings 
proceeded to disown such members. 
Finally in the year 1783 it was reported that 
no slave was held by any member of the 
New York Yearly Meeting. 

But the conscience of Friends did not 
allow them to rest with merely liberating 
their slaves. They felt that liberated slaves 
should be reimbursed for past services, in 
1 781 monthly meetings were directed "to 

16 



appoint a number of solid, judicious 
Friends as a committee to visit such Friends 
who have set their negroes free, and in- 
spect into the circumstances of such ne- 
groes, and afford them such advice both 
with respect to their spiritual and temporal 
good as they may be enabled to do, and 
also to find what in justice may be done to 
such negroes as may have spent the prime 
of their lives in the service of their mas- 
ters." They were likewise authorized to 
determine the amount so due when the late 
masters were willing to leave it to the 
judgment of the committee. They were 
also directed to see that provision was 
made for the proper education of the negro 
youth. Reports were made from time to 
time of the progress of this work until in 
1784 it was recorded: "It appears from 
the reports from the monthly meetings 
that they have attended to the settlement 
between Friends who have set negroes 
free and the negroes so set free, and they 
find that such settlement hath been gener- 
ally made when it was necessary.' 

Schools were provided for negro child- 
ren and meetings for religious work and 
instruction were held among the negroes. 

The Friends of the Purchase Meeting 
17 



went still further and settled their liberated 
slaves upon lands set apart for them in the 
northwest portion of Harrison's Purchase. 
The settlement thus made continues to the 
present day, with the descendants of those 
slaves. This district N. E. of the village of 
White Plains is known as "The Hills." 

The Friends of Purchase quarterly meet- 
ing gave early and careful attention to the 
education of their children, and it was the 
rule for each congregation to have a school 
of its own, supported by the meeting. 
There were then few if any public schools. 
The interest grew until 17Q6 a yearly 
meeting boarding school was established 
at the Nine Partners, in Dutchess County. 

During the sixty-nine years that the Ob- 
ong was a part of Purchase quarterly 
meeting the closest and most cordial rela- 
tions existed between the membership. 
Visits were frequently exchanged and the 
residents of Quaker Hill found hospitable 
stopping places along their route to the city 
of New York whenever business or pleasure 
took them thither. Four times each year they 
met to transact the business of the church, 
and watch over the spiritual life of the 
members and advise in matters pertaining 
to their religious interests, Peaceful and 

18 



contented lives went calmly on into serene 
old age and then descendants and acquaint- 
ances revered their memory. 

But what was the outcome of it all ? As 
a church, the Quakers here missed their 
great opportunity. As settlers came among 
them in increasing numbers the Friends 
became very solicitious to preserve the 
strictest moral observances among their 
members. They withdrew from contact 
and association with the world about them 
and confined their religious influence and 
effort to themselves. The strictest watch 
was maintained over the deportment of 
old and young. Members were dismissed 
for comparatively trivial offences. Immi- 
gration further reduced their numbers. 
Hypercriticism produced disagreements 
among themselves. Finally doctrinal diff- 
erences arose which resulted in a disas- 
trous separation into two bodies in 1828. 
The field that a peculiar combination of 
circumstances had placed in their hands 
was lost and their moral influence, high 
and pure and strong, was all that remained 
for them to give to the communities about 
them. 



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LIBRORY OF CONGRESS 



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